Piston ring



Patented Mar. 30, 1926.

UNITED STATES ARTHUR A. WESTER, 0F DENVER, QOLORADO.

PISTON RING.

Application led September 21, 1925. Serial N0. 57,570.

To all whom z'tmag/ concern:

Be it known that I, ARTHUR A. llvnsrrn, a citizen of the United States, residing at the city and county of Denver and State of Colorado, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Piston Rings; and I do declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the characters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this application.

Thi-s invention relates to imp-rovements in piston rings.

It is well known that internal combustion engines have a great tendency to pump oil into the combustion chamber thereby fouling the spark plugs and in other kways interfering with the proper operation ofthe engine.

I am aware that a large number of piston rings have been invented that have for their object the production of an oil sealing means that will permit proper lubrication of the cylinder walls and also prevent oil from entering the combustion chamber in quantities sufficient to be objectionable. As far as I am aware, however, no one has produced a ring that is of practical construction and which at the same time operates successfully.

It is the robject of this invention to produce a ring of simple practical construction which will be effective in preventing an undue amount of oil pumping and still permit proper lubrication.

Various theories have been advanced to account for the excessive oil pumping of :in engine, one of the most plausible of which is that a film of oil accumulates on the cylinder wall and is carried upwardly bythe combined action of the rings as they move upwardly and the suction during the intake stroke. It is evident that if the rings were so constructed that they would scrape the oil downwardly and slide over the oil film while going in the upward direction that then the oil could not enter the combustion chamber in excessive quantities.

My improved ring is so constructed that its lower end, although it has only the ordinary ninety degree angle, will tend to scrape the oil downwardly while on the upward vplane of the ring.

The above, and other objects that will become apparent as the description proceeds are attained by means of a construction that I will now describe in detail, reference for this purpose being had to the accompanying drawing in which:

Fig. l is a side elevation of a piston showing my improved ring invplace thereon, a portion of the piston and the rings being shown in section;

Fig. 2 is a section, to an enlarged scale, taken on line 2 2, Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a section taken on line 3 3, Fig. 1, and

Fig. L is a perspective view of a portion of the under side of my ring'showing its construction.

Numeral l represents a piston of ordinary construction which is provided near its upper end with several piston grooves 2.

-From the lowermost corner of the lower piston groove several small holes 3 extend on a slant through the piston wall. In the upper two piston ring grooves I have shown ordinary cork seal piston rings 4. My improved ring has been designated by numeral 5 and is located 1n the lowermost groove regardless of where this groove is located on the piston for the reason that its function is to keep the oil from traveling upwardly. My Yimproved ring has a cross-section like that shown in Fig. 3 and may be most readily described by saying that the ring is first formed so as to have a rectangular cross section which is subsequently modified by chamfering the upper corner in the manner indica-ted by numeral 6 so that it will slide over the oil film when moving upwardly. In the lower side of the ring I have cut a triangular groove 7 whose rear side 8 is perpendicular to the lower side'of the ring and whose inclined side 9 forms an angle of substantially thirty degrees with the bottom It will be noticed that the inclined side 9 intersects the base of the ring along a line which is'spaceda short 'distance from the outer surface thereof, so as to form an annular 'surface whose width in the actual construction is one sixty-fourth of an inch. l also want to call particular attention to the fact that the annular face of the ring that has been'designated by numeral 11 does not lie in the same plane as the part that is designated by numeral 12 but lies above the latter a distance which in actual practice is .025 of an inch. rlhis provides a space between the surface 11 and the lower side of the piston ring groove which permits the oil to pass into the groove 7. It is, of course, necessary to provide a passage through which the oil may pass from the groove 7 and into the openings 3 through which it returns to the interior of the piston and lfor this purpose l have provided my ring with six openings 13 whose upper sides make an angle of about degrees with the base 12. These openings are long but comparatively shallow so that they have suicient capacity to take care of any amount of oil that enters the groove 7. The fact that the openings 13 are wide and shallow assures a large capacity without the necessity of weakening the ring to any appreciable extent.-

I am awareA that rings have been made that bear a superficial resemblance to the ring described above, but my ring differs from these in several important particulars among which may be mentioned my ring has its outer lower edge terminating in a flat surface 11 that forms ninety degrees with the outer wall, whereas others employ a sharp edge at this point. When the ring is made in accordance with this disclosure, it will not have any greater tendency to wear the cylinder surface than an ordinary piston ring but will be substantially as effective in keeping down the oil as are rings having knife edges.

Having now described my invention what l claim as new is:

1. A piston ring whose lower surface lies in two vertically spaced planes, said ring having a triangular shaped grooveextending the entireI length of its lower surface, the rear wall of said groove being perpendicular to the plane of the base and intersects the lower base plane, the inclined wall of said groove extending outwardly in a downward direction andintersects the upper base plane a short distance from the outside of the ring so as to provide a narrow annular surface, said ring having openings connecting said groove with the rear thereof.

2. A ring whose cross section is defined by a straight horizontal line forming the upper side, a straight vertical line forming the rear side, two angularly related lines of unequal length, forming the front side the shorter line extending downwardly and outwardly from the line forming the upper side and intersecting the longer line a short distance below the upper side so as to. form a chamfer, the longer of the two sides forming the front being parallel with the line forming the rear and four separate lines forming the bottom one of said four lines extending rearwardly in a horizontal direction a short distance where it intersects a line extending upwardly and rearwardly at ings which form communications between the front and the rear surfaces thereof.

ln testimony whereof I aiiix my signature.

ARTHUR A. wEsTER. 

